Jean-Roch Nader

Dr Jean-Roch Nader is a post-doctoral researcher fellow at the National Centre for Marine Engineering and Hydrodynamics at the Australian Maritime College, a specialist institute of the University of Tasmania. Jean-Roch's background and interest are in Maritime Engineering and more particularly in Ocean Renewable Energy.

Biography

In 2006, Jean-Roch completed two master degrees his first being a Master in Maritime Engineering from the Engineering Sciences Institute of Toulon and Var, France (ISITV). The second, a Research Master specialising in Physical Oceanography and Coastal Meteorology from the University of South Toulon-Var (USTV) France.

In 2007, Jean-Roch worked as a Research Engineer, at the consultancy cell CASAGEC attached to the coastal and civil research laboratory LaSAGeC2, University of Pau, Anglet France, (Coastal Engineering).

In 2008, he relocated to Australia to take on a position of Research Engineer, (2008) at the Marine and Ocean Forecasting group, the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR), Bureau of Meteorology; (global ocean modelling).

In 2014, Jean-Roch graduated with a PhD from the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics (SMAS), Faculty of Informatics, at the University of Wollongong (UOW) and commenced as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Australian Maritime College in late 2013.

Languages (other than English)

French (native)

Spanish (conversational)

Administrative expertise

Jean-Roch is the first year coordinator at NCMEH which involves a large number of administrative duties from coordinating first year students and units, organising first year activities and managing a first year RIGS project.

Research Themes

Jean-Roch's research aligns to the University's research themes of Marine, Antarctic and Maritime as well as Environment, Resources and Sustainability. His research experience is working with varied applications of mathematical modelling techniques (including his own 3D hydrodynamic model), instrumentation, data processing and experimental investigation applied to the study of maritime engineering, hydrodynamics, coastal engineering and ocean modelling problems.

Jean-Roch is currently centred on experimental and numerical investigation of ocean renewable energy devices – power generation, environmental impact and resource assessment; both wave energy and marine current energy.

I don't know a better place in Australia for this research than the Australian Maritime College.

His previous experience and interest includes:

Ocean and meteorology modelling;

Coastal monitoring (sediment transport, water quality, currents)

Hydrodynamic of floating structures.

Collaboration

Jean-Roch's PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Wollongong was funded by an ARC grant in conjunction with industry partner Oceanlinx Ltd.He is currently an investigator on two Category 2 competitive research grants funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), wave energy companies BioPower Systems Ltd and Carnegie Wave Power Ltd, together with partners Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO to address a critical knowledge gap in understanding the performance of ocean wave-energy devices in arrays when operating in relatively close proximity.

Current projects

Jean-Roch is currently an investigator on two Category 2 competitive research grants funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), wave energy companies BioPower Systems Ltd and Carnegie Wave Power Ltd, together with partners Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO to address a critical knowledge gap in understanding the performance of ocean wave-energy devices in arrays when operating in relatively close proximity.I have been extending my current research toward other fields of Maritime Engineering (Ocean Engineering, instrumentation and tidal energy) where in cooperation with my colleague, Dr Remo Cossu, we were successful in securing a University of Tasmania, Grant-Research Enhancement (REGS). This project aims at developing a cost-effective methodology to measure tidal current velocity fields and to evaluate their suitability for renewable energy generation. The project includes in-situ measurement campaigns as well as numerical modelling.

Research Objectives

Publications

Jean-Roch has published five journal papers (with three journal article bonuses), three refereed international conference papers and one technical report.

Two of his journal papers, as lead author, are gaining international recognition with (Nader et al., 2012) being already cited 15 times and (Nader et al., 2014) identified as a 'Key Scientific Article contributing to excellence in engineering, scientific and industrial research' by Advances in Engineering Ltd Ontario, CANADA.

Grants & Funding

Jean Roch's PhD (UOW) research in Applied Mathematics was funded by an ARC grant (LP0776644) in conjunction with industry partner Oceanlinx Ltd.

He is currently an investigator on two Category 2 competitive research grants funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), wave energy companies BioPower Systems Ltd and Carnegie Wave Power Ltd, together with partners Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO to address a critical knowledge gap in understanding the performance of ocean wave-energy devices in arrays when operating in relatively close proximity.

Jean Roch is a co-investigator in a University of Tasmania, Grant-Research Enhancement (REGS). This project aims at developing a cost-effective methodology to measure tidal current velocity fields and to evaluate their suitability for renewable energy generation.

Knowledge of Australias tidal resource remains insufficient for prospective tidal energy developers who are expressing interest in developing tidal stream projects in Australia and to make any assessment of their risk for potential projects. Several successful deployments of tidal technologies have been carried out in test centres internationally, and as a result, tidal systems are considered to have the highest TRL's in the ocean renewables sector. AMC-UTAS, with project partners CSIRO and UQ, seek to address this critical knowledge gap.

CSIRO have successfully signed with ARENA (the AustralianRenewable Energy Agency). This is a subcontract with CSIRO to compare estimates between numerical and laboratory models, and dedicated fieldobservations, of (i) the qualitative structure of the current field around a wave energy converter (WEC); and (ii) the attenuation of the wave field downstream of a WEC.Its from this study would indicate the basic qualitative pattern of currents created by a wave energy device: for example, whether the device would producea current in the form of a jet, a single vortex, a pair of vortices, or multiple vortices, and enable validation of idealized numerical and laboratory experimentswith field collected data. Furthermore, measurements of wave energy attenuation down‐stream of the WEC(s) will be compared between idealizedlaboratory and numerical experiments, and insitu field measurements. These comparisons will allow the project to determine how representative the fieldmeasurements are of alternative WEC technologies, for which other idealized experiments have been carried out.